I have crossed the border from Mexico to the USA and the border with Canada; the East coast of the United States is behind me, leaves fall from the trees and you can smell winter in the air; there are temperatures of 7oC and I think I didn’t arrive in time to see the summer, the winter will accompany me even though the plan was to go up before it came because of the extreme conditions that can come with it; almost 10,000km will be needed to travel from Québec to see the North Pole in the West, the highest point you can reach by car, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

The beard and the hair have grown, the belly has shrunken, the kilometers on the car continue to pile up and RoverTa is beginning to look tired. Four mechanical faults only in this period of time (suspension, alternator, battery and transfer) on the best highways in the continent, maybe she relaxed too much or it is just that these terrains are not for her, or the fatigue is also showing up on this brave traveler. The trip continues to be a total extreme, marveled by what I see and worried when I think of the money I need to go back home!

Esteban Quijano (Villahermosa), Manuel Molera (Arizona), Erick Montaños (Arizona) Mariela (Texas), Santiago (Miami), Jorge Valdez (Miami) , Rodrigo (Washington DC), Rogelio Perea (NY), Rovers North (Vermont) and the City Council of Nogales, these friends have me here in the North, they have supported me with their friendship, economically, morally and spiritually. Each one of them has a story in this trip, one that I will talk about in the future. Until today I have travelled more than 60,000km in the last 7 months, a trip that was forecasted to be completed in six, there are still at least 20,000km left and I have to make it before October because Alaska can get complicated as the winter moves on.

It was a dream to travel around the world to take pictures of it, to get to know it, to taste it, to talk about it. I haven’t written things on the site for a while, time has disappeared, it has vanished like in the everyday life of the city I tried to escape from, worries catch up with me and problems are harder to solve from a distance; at times what looked like a trip of adventure and pleasure, is now a game of survival and readiness to solve both worlds, the one on the road and the one back home. And besides all that I need time to observe, to get to know and tell you about things through my eyes about the world on the other side of our window.

San Antonio, New Orleans, Miami, Washington DC, New York, Boston, Vermont, Québec Canada, those are the destinations that kept me absent from this virtual space, with lots of things to talk about and to show you about them there will be chronicles coming from every specific site with their respective main characters.

The car is broken, the transfer will need a replacement, a costly repair that has to be made for the trip to continue; the budget was forecasted to last so that I could reach Alaska thanks to the help of my friend Esteban, now everything changes; now RoverTa has to be in optimum conditions before thinking of the next destination, and again I can’t stop thinking about the winter in the North Pole, even before thinking about finding sponsors to continue.

For many readers it will seem rather incredible to see how a traveler with an adventure of this magnitude and such a long distance travels without monetary resources! In the beginning the challenge was planned in a different way, the car was equipped with support from our friends at Alex Tires in Nogales, AZ, and from Expeditioneers in Phoenix, and economic sponsorship was also found from several companies to make the trip possible, and so with this settled nothing more was required for the feat, but since plans always change, the economic support was the one that failed, it never arrived! This gave the project a different touch, now it was not only about traveling and gathering stories, now it was about finding a way to survive in unknown places, to sleep where it looked safe, and to continue so that one day all this could come to an end and the first trip around the continent by car could be completed.

The most common fears of any person have been experienced: not having something to eat, not having a place to sleep, not having money, being lost, not having a house, living by asking for favors, thoughts that if we put them in the mind in any normal situation could terrify any of us and make the world come tumbling down on us, now experiencing them all at once is even more complicated. In the real world, if we can call it this way, there comes a point where there are no more options, those problems are all there waiting in line for me, I treat them as if I don’t care looking for a solution and surprisingly there is always a way or a person that will help us, there will always be a solution for a problem and it is then when the small things we have every day that we see as normal gain and immense and immeasurable value.

The best part of the continent is definitely the human warmth and caring, the new friends and the new families; they have made possible the telling of this story until today. Those people that have given me their love, their home, that have invited me to their table, they are part of this feat, they drive it from any place I arrive to and I know that they will take me back to Nogales.

I’ll see you soon with the pending chronicles and lots and lots of new pictures from North-America.

3 Responses to “233 Days – USA – Canada”

We met when you broke down in Ashtabula, Ohio. I was getting my minivan fixed at the same time you first arrived at the shop, before you went out to see the new covered bridge. I came back and took pictures of your vehicle so I could find your website and chatted with you for a few minutes.

I am a substitute teacher in a local school system and have been giving your internet address to teachers so that they can use your travels with their classes, as I thought your adventure would give kids an opportunity to see the real world, not just the one in text books.

I hope the remainder of your trip was successful and you had no more mechanical misfortunes! Will you be posting more after your Niagara Falls stop?

how are you my name is roberto and i have been seeing your web site and the local new in hermosillo where they talk about you, let me say you that all your adventure is amazing, how can i get to be one of you ??? well i hope to hear soon about you.